Choose our NPQ for Early Years Leadership and you’ll be joining over 37,000 teachers, school leaders and early years practitioners (as of July 2025), who have decided on an Ambition NPQ since they launched in 2021.

Evidence informed curriculum
Our carefully sequenced and evidence informed NPQ is designed around the key problems you face.  You’ll develop your knowledge and understanding of what high-quality, early years education and care looks like.

Access the latest early years research
This includes core areas like how early years leaders can deliver and sustain change, factors affecting child development and the importance of a positive culture to improve outcomes.

Train to your timetable
Our ‘little and often’ approach means you can engage with our NPQs around your busy timetable, with minimal time needed out of school.  On average just one hour per week to engage in our NPQEYL.

No large project
Plus, on our NPQs there’s no large project at the end.  Instead, you’ll sit an ‘open book’ assessment with support via two on-demand webinars and a dedicated, live assessment preparation clinic to help you get the most from your NPQEYL.

Benefits for you

Thrive as a leader
This course is designed specifically for leaders of early years education. Through evidence-based professional development, you’ll learn what great early years learning looks like and how to lead others and your setting. You’ll also look at what others can learn from you.

Close the gap
Evidence* shows that high quality care and education in early years is fundamental for a child’s development, preparing them for school and later life*. We’ll help you to develop the knowledge to deliver this to the children you support.

Designed by early years experts
Benefit from a programme which is designed and delivered by early years specialists and experts from across the sector.

Tailor your training
The programme allows you to apply the theory to your early years’ setting.  You’ll be able to bring our own persistent problems and solve them with the support of expert facilitators and network peers.

Invest in your future
Ongoing professional development helps you to grow and thrive as an early years practitioner.  You will follow an evidence-informed framework and gain a professional accreditation at the end of the programme.

Learn at your pace
This programme is designed to fit around your busy teaching role. Much of the work can be completed in short bursts around your existing schedule.

Connect with your peers
You’ll train with people from early years settings, sharing your experiences and building a strong support network.

*Sources:
Barnett, W. S. (1995). “Long-term effects of early childhood programs on cognitive and school outcomes”. The Future of Children, 25-50.
Heckman, J., Pinto, R. and Savelyev, P. (2013). “Understanding the mechanisms through which an influential early childhood program boosted adult outcomes”. American Economic Review 103(6), 2052-2086

Benefits for your early years setting

Give young people the best start
Equipping your leaders with evidence-based training on what good education and care looks like will help to create a level playing field for children in the early stages of life.

Benefit from tailored training
This is the first NPQ that is designed specifically for early years practitioners. It will develop expertise that can be applied to identifying and addressing persistent and common challenges in early years leadership.

Invest in high-quality professional development
Participants will learn how to unpack and apply learning across all aspects of the early years –and support their colleagues to develop in these areas too.

Create a ‘golden thread’
The new NPQs are all aligned. Right from the start, your leaders will benefit from an evidence-based framework with a common language that they can pass onto colleagues.

Tap into a network
Your leaders will train alongside peers from other early years settings, supported by facilitators who fully understand their needs.